Management proposals “no basis” for Croke Park extension

15th January 2013

IMPACT and other unions have said that a deal to extend the Croke Park agreement would not be possible on the basis of the entire package of proposals tabled by public service management at the opening of talks yesterday (Monday).

IMPACT said the core protections of the Croke Park agreement, which does not expire until next year, remain in place and said the measures outlined by management (see below) had not been accepted by unions.

IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody said it was no surprise that management outlined a far-reaching ‘wish list’ of changes it would seek in the negotiations, which are likely to run well into February. Shay has already warned that it would be difficult to reach an agreement.

“Management is kidding itself if it thinks we will agree a package that includes all the measures it tabled yesterday. But if this is a menu of issues to explore, it might be possible to negotiate an acceptable and equitable package that can be put to ballot, although this is clearly going to be very difficult indeed,” he said.

Cody is chair of the ICTU Public Services Committee, which represents all the unions in the talks. Unions told management yesterday that any outcome would have to meet three criteria:

Management would have to demonstrate that any proposal would make genuine and necessary savings

Any package would have to be fair, which meant the burden could not fall disproportionately on any group of staff, particularly those on low and middle incomes

The outcome would have to pass the tests of ballots of union members.

The unions also say the negotiation will have to make a clear distinction between temporary measures needed to address the current budgetary crisis and change that would remain in place beyond the crisis.

Union agenda

The unions also outlined measures that had to be satisfactorily addressed in the negotiations. These included:

Management position

Management reiterated that it would be implementing measures to further reduce the public service pay and pension bill by €1 billion, on top of the measures currently being implemented under the Croke Park agreement, and that it would seek to do this by agreement.

Management opened the meeting by outlining the issues it intended to table during the negotiations, which were grouped under three headings or ‘modules’: Productivity and efficiency measures; workforce reform; and further pay and pension bill measures. Management said it required different application of these measures in different sectors.

Its opening agenda was essentially a list of headings, with very little detail of exactly what would be sought during the talks. It included:

Working hours, day and week

Overtime/premia/twilight/supervision and substitution, etc

Flexibility to deploy atypical working arrangements

Management flexibility in the use and deployment of hours, rosters etc

Extended opening hours of public offices

Simplified redeployment arrangements and an extended distance for redeployment#

“Exit mechanisms,” which is believed to mean compulsory redundancies in certain situations

Last week IMPACT’s general secretary Shay Cody wrote to members outlining why the union had agreed to enter the talks. He said that “the employers will seek to impose payroll reductions in ways of their choosing as they have done in the past” if we rejected talks or failed to reach an agreement. “Our task in the negotiations is to minimise the impact of cuts on public servants and the people they serve, and to influence the shape of any changes in ways that best protect our members’ incomes and working conditions,” he said.

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IMPACT is the Republic of Ireland's largest public and services trade union, representing close to 60,000 members working in hundreds of public service occupations, grades and professions in health, local government, education, the civil service, and voluntary and community organisations. We also represent members in commercial and non-commercial semi-state organisations and in private aviation and telecommunications companies.